on scene of earlier triumphs. Looks hardly a day older than
when he left us; the same perky manner, the same wooden visage, with
its pervading air of supreme self-satisfaction and inscrutable wisdom.
It is a night given up to Indian topics. PLOWDEN, in his quiet,
effective way, has just carried Motion which will have substantial
effect in the direction of securing fuller debate of Indian questions.
GORST, standing at table replying to BUCHANAN on another Indian topic,
alludes with deferential tone to "the SECRETARY OF STATE." GRAND CROSS
almost audibly purrs from his perch in the Gallery.

"An odd world, my masters," says the Member for SARK, striding out
impatiently, "when you have a man like GORST Under-Secretary, with
a man like GRAND CROSS at the Head of the Department."

_Business done_.--An hour or two given to India.

_Thursday_.--Army Estimates on to-night. HANBURY comes to the front,
as usual. STANHOPE tossing about on Treasury Bench, in considerable
irritation.

"What's the use, my ST. JOHN," he asked BRODRICK, the only man
standing by him, "of a family arrangement like ours, if one is
subjected to annoyance like this? With one brother in the Peers, a
pillar of staid Conservatism; with myself on the Treasury Bench,
a Cabinet Minister, a right-hand man of the Government: and then,
final touch, old PHILIP EGALITE below the Gangway opposite, with
his Radicalism, and his tendency to out-JACOBY LABOUCHERE. This is
a broad-based family combination, that ought to make us, each in his
way, irresistible. And yet there seems nothing to prevent a fellow
like HANBURY looking down from his six feet two scornfully on a
British soldier not more than five feet four in his stocking-feet,
whilst he inflates his chest, and asks, in profound bass notes, how
are the ancient glories of the British Army to be maintained with men
who cannot stretch the tape at thirty-six inches?"

[Illustration: "Amazed at his own Moderation."]

When HANBURY sat down, after pounding away in ponderous style for
nearly an hour, STANHOPE got up and prodded him reproachfully.
Wonderful how much vinegar and vitriol he managed to distil into his
oft-repeated phrase, "My honourable friend!" As for HANBURY, he sat
with hands in pocket, staring at empty benches opposite, amazed at his
own moderation.

Hours of the usual kind of talk on Army Estimates; the Colonels,
Volunteer and otherwise, showing that the Army is as GILL (who
has recently spent some